Penelope Lively's recent short ebook for Penguin drew criticism for its brevity – but readers should not be put off the genre as a whole"Overpriced", "ridiculous", I feel cheated". Amazon reviewers haven't been wholly positive about a digital short Penelope Lively has written for Penguin Specials. On the evidence of the story itself, it's not Lively's fault. Abroad is about a pair of art students who travel to 1950s Spain in search of picturesque peasants and are disappointed when they don't live up to expectations. It's funny and evocative of a time when rural Europe was still exotic.It also peters out after just 4,000 words, so I sympathise with anyone who felt ripped off by its £1.99 price tag. These days you can buy two whole novels for that. The sad fact is, publishers don't make any money if an ebook costs less than £1.99. Amazon does, because singles are the literary equivalent of a gateway drug.This was brought home to me on finishing Susan Hill's latest effort, Printer's Devil Court (99p), a haunting tale about pre-second world war medical students who experiment with resurrection. More substantial than Lively's, it's a great, old-fashioned ghost story, whose chilling impact was somewhat undermined by turning the final page to find Amazon ordering me to rate, review, tweet, Facebook and buy more books by Susan Hill. Was the ebook I'd enjoyed little more than a trailer?Singles are a clever marketing tool. But it would be a shame if readers short-changed by one... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2013-11-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 19/05/2011 - 10:00 The percentage of ebook purchases has dropped back from the high of the post-Christmas period, falling to 2.5% of all book purchases in volume over the four-week period to 20th March. In a presentation at the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 19/05/2011 - 09:15 The percentage of ebook purchases has dropped back from the high of the post-Christmas period, falling to 2.5% of all book purchases in volume over the four-week period to 20th March. In a presentation at the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Thu, 12/05/2011 - 09:19 Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse series of novels, has become the latest writer to sell more than one million Kindle ebooks through Amazon. The author, who is published by Gollancz in the UK, joins Stieg... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A round-up of news from the cookbook world: 'Top Chef' Mike Isabella Gets a Cookbook Deal; Chronicle Joins iBookstore; 'Bon Appétit Desserts' for iPad. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-05-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Tue, 10/05/2011 - 16:07 Publishers should avoid locking themselves into any long term strategy, technology or partnerships in their digital publishing because they cannot accurately predict the next two years' developments, today's World eReading... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Tue, 10/05/2011 - 15:49 Waterstone's could soon bring e-reading front of store in its physical bookshops in a manner similar to Barnes & Noble with its Nook in the US, according to e-commerce manager Alex Ingrams. Speaking to delegates at the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 06/05/2011 - 08:55 Random House has hit the landmark of two million ebooks sold in the UK, with other leading publishers reporting a first quarter explosion in digital sales. E-books currently account for 8% of RH's overall sales, with... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Barbara Casassus Publication Date: Thu, 05/05/2011 - 09:14 France is bracing for battle with the European Commission with its government on the verge of adopting a bill allowing publishers to fix prices for all ebooks sold in France. The bill, which was approved unanimously by an... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Tue, 03/05/2011 - 09:22 The digital publishing market is now worth 6% of UK publishers' sales, the Publishers Association has revealed, with consumer digital sales up more than 300% in 2010 to £16mthe third year of treble digit growth. The PA... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Publishers Association have released new figures which explain how much damage ebooks are doing to their paper based alternatives. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2011-05-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 28/04/2011 - 15:24 Penguin's ebook sales have doubled in the first quarter of 2011 compared to the same period in 2010, its parent company Pearson revealed in a statement today (28th April). In its interim management statement covering the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Thu, 28/04/2011 - 15:39 UK publishers are locked in discussions with librarians over ground rules for ebook lending, with librarians continuing to press publishers to allow institutions to loan ebooks under the one ebook, one loan, model pioneered... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Tue, 26/04/2011 - 08:48 Agents are anticipating escalators in ebook contracts to become "the norm rather than the exception", as they reported already having negotiated the clause with UK publishers in some cases. An escalator clause means the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Wed, 20/04/2011 - 12:08 Amazon.com has announced a new service allowing Kindle books to be borrowed from US libraries. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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By Nick Peers Calibre is a must-have tool. It exists to organize, convert and even transfer your ebook collection to and from your ebook reader. Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2011-04-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publication Date: Tue, 12/04/2011 - 10:36 Barbara Kingsolver's Orange Prize-winning The Lacuna (Faber) has been shortlisted for the 100,000 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. The 10-strong list, announced this morning (12th April), also includes three from Irish authors, Brooklyn by... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Jones Publication Date: Sun, 10/04/2011 - 16:03 Enhanced ebooks are dead, discoverability is the most important issue facing ebook vendors, while pricing strategies should be measured against other digital content, not physical books. These were the key themes that emerged... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Philip Stone and Graeme Neill Publication Date: Thu, 07/04/2011 - 09:11 Spending in March has hit a six-year low, with sales slumping by 8.7% year on year. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Custom Content Council and ContentWise 11th annual content industry study, Characteristics Study: A Look at the Volume and Type of Content Marketing in America for 2011, reported $12.5 billion spent in the custom content industry. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2011-04-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 06/04/2011 - 09:16 Independent publisher Continuum has launched an ebook store, featuring a selection of titles across Continuum's humanities, education and religion lists. Around 2,000 titles will be available for download in Adobe PDF and... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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